


absolution

by heleus



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Father-Daughter Relationship, Found Family, Gen, Missing Scene, POV Third Person, Protective Joel, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 04:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20754008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heleus/pseuds/heleus
Summary: "How did you do it, Joel?" Ellie's voice catches his attention, dragging it away from the workbench in front of him.He shifts his weight absentmindedly, rolling a bullet between his thumb and forefinger. "Do what?" he asks with a divided curiosity.Ellie is silent for a moment before she answers: "How did you find me?"





	absolution

**Author's Note:**

> uHhhh angst
> 
> joel is my mf babie and if ANYTHING happens to him EVER i will fight naughty dog ok
> 
> this takes place between the end of the chapter w/ david and the beginning of the spring chapter. it's short but it wouldn't stop bugging me

"How did you do it, Joel?" Ellie's voice catches his attention, dragging it away from the workbench in front of him.

He shifts his weight absentmindedly, rolling a bullet between his thumb and forefinger. "Do what?" he asks with a divided curiosity.

Ellie is silent for a moment before she answers: "How did you find me?"

Joel presses his lips together, keeping his line of sight intently focused on the disassembled weaponry before him. "I, uh... I did what I had to, Ellie."

The pressing silence that followed made Joel shift with discomfort. He imagines the discontented look on Ellie's face, the way her brows would lower firmly with determination and the way her jaw would set as she squared her shoulders with a silent dissatisfaction.

"Does that mean I shouldn't know about it?" she questions, pushing on as teenagers often do, her fingers tapping on the wooden surface of the desk she had situated herself upon.

Joel lets the question roll around in his mind for a moment before turning to face her. "Nah. It just means I ain't proud of it."

Ellie's face falls slightly before settling on a neutral expression as she absorbed the words and the meanings buried within them. "Oh," she says rather simply.

"I wasn't gonna let them get away with hurting you," Joel speaks with a strong conviction, his eyes narrowing as he recalls the events. "No matter what it took."

There are some things better left buried and unsaid, Joel thinks; he knows, better than most, the weight of regret; he knows, better than most, the way trauma pulled a person apart and reassembled them, all the same pieces in all the wrong orders.

The teen then twisted her hands for a moment, her eyes briefly sorrowful. "You still hadn't healed though, Joel. Didn't it hurt you to fight off all of the... cannibals?"

"I hadn't," Joel confirms with a nod. "But I _had _to find you, Ellie. I wasn't gonna let you turn out like—" He clenches his hands into fists, cutting his sentence short. "I wasn't gonna let _anything _happen to you," he remedies with an anger backed by only the strongest of emotions.

Ellie slides off the desk and walks up to Joel, tilting her head upwards before snaking her arms around his torso and hugging him. "Thank you," she says into his shirt.

The rest of the sentence — the "for caring about me" — goes unspoken, but Joel hears it all the same, and finds himself returning the gesture. "You don't have to thank me, kiddo," he says with a somewhat fatherly tone. "We make a good team."

It's when Ellie pulls out of his embrace and lends him a soft smile — an expression that had become less and less common since Joel had met her — that Joel realizes he considers Ellie his family.


End file.
